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, welcome to Midnight in Shackled City

15:05, 17th May 2024 (GMT+0)

IC Thread 3.

Posted by wlake.gmtnFor group 0
wlake.gmtn
GM, 72 posts
Sat 14 Jan 2023
at 05:48
  • msg #1

IC Thread 3

The town of Baden's Bluff was modernized and nationalized at some point in the centuries before the coming of the military. Now guards stand at their posts, with rumors indicating the watchtowers are manned to grant a beautiful sweep of the terrain. Before the military broadened its search into the fertile lands in the Jungle of Aruun, the rocks faced crashing waves several miles to the southwest. Demigraphically the city then became bolstered by the military, with several of the military garrisons electing to have queues and plumed hats, in a gesture of style in keeping with the strident and yet diehard military presence. The population sat at 30000 in the third century BK (before Kronos) and the political nature of the city means the four gates are always welcoming in fresh streams of individuals. Once the harbinger of illicit trades, the city is now more streamlined and faces magical trials all in their due purpose. The gods have been paying especial attention to the city, given its growth over the years from 30000 to 130000 today. This means, given the chronology, that it is considered a metropolis. It was the sole city to be literally erased from the pencil drafts of Izrador's minions, and the gods were unable to detect what the servants of Izrador were cooking up in the tunnels beneath the city. Nestled into the surrounding hills, the ground is a fine light green, often glowing amber as the wind sends its currents through the plants, which are well known for speaking in obscure tongues. The coffers are currently low but the chancellors are using their numismatical skills to channel a grudge against the "haves" in the outside of the city. Upon the coins are inscribed letters similar to Phonecian, and many postulate that these coins are the work of collaboration with Meeru and the demodands, solidifying arcane control of the city. It erupts once every ten years, forcing residents to pay homage to myths like Pompeii to maintain their grasp on the environment. Meanwhile the water sits unrippled, pond scum radiating a similar energy to that in a Roman bath or the speaking plants far-flung.

The coins that you spent have an image of Posiin, a legendary ruler who travelled from the lands to the southeast. He has a fishhook pitted against his mouth, and the angler's guild is well known for supplying magical food to the population from the center pond and indoor pools. Demographically the city is highly stratified, with magic in the hands of only an elite few.

Izrador's presence in the realm of the gods means he has been sealed up, but not water tight. When gods mess around with bodies, there's no telling when there might be danger exuded from the pores of even a city tree, which are bent around the city like spokes on a wheel. One myth postulates Posiin rolled up the city like a snowball of dough and rolled it into the latest modern craze: the bowling alley with magically resetting pins. The gods are decked out in magical style, but the presence of the fallen one goes way back into the past, his forme changing as the years brushed his scaled dragon-like carapace. There is a natural dilemma resulting from his attempt to control the power nexuses and explosions resulting in fire elementals at sites where his attention warps into place like a broken pipe. Currently the gods' followers who directed you to pay some attention to the city from your travels from Huxtable, marking a new era in the jockeying for power that is the pantheon. Spontaneous combats break out when individuals resort to openly displaying magic items or trinkets. The glow of trinkets is much lower, however, and the triangulation harbors deep desires from the crisp leaves that can be folded into magical origami. Some use these as spies, and the rumor about missing children means that the origami will glow in tandem with telluric currents, but the city's riot takes the attention away from the disappearance.

A man with a plumed visor with white marks on it and rainbow ponytail-like plumes darts around a corner after the coins get ripped open by someone exploiting the riot. Screams soar all around amidst the chaos, and you're able to get magical entrance, having sensed the masonry of alabaster whispering cries of terror. The slope seems to tug at your feet and a fire elemental darts around the corner with its amorphic form stitching together a hike to pursue the man with the holy book in his hands. He blasts the man with enfeebling ray, causing him to tip over, and you hear the clanking of his coins as the cobbles greet death from below.
Birahu the Black
player, 19 posts
Sat 14 Jan 2023
at 13:00
  • msg #2

IC Thread 3

Looking all around, Birahu is unsettled, thinking it might be safer to leave and never return! It looked daunting to him! "Well good gentles, what do you think?" he asks the others in his party. "Lady Maevre? I'm out of my element with all of this. There are just too many and many are much more powerful than I. Elementals flitting everywhere."
Aranea
player, 11 posts
Sat 14 Jan 2023
at 17:24
  • msg #3

IC Thread 3

Aranea looks around a bit and in her hybrid form facial expression is only slightly modified by the mandibular fangs that fold out from her jaw; there are still segments that may as well be lips- and those are being bitten. She spoke her thoughts though, "I am going to cast Magic Aura to hide that aspect. I can probably find a decent path unless they really are everywhere. The chaos should make it easier to move around unless someone does something drastic. I am very much not effective against elementals. If we can find their summoners though, I'd be happy to deal with those. I'd rather be in the forests than the city but this is a bit extreme."
Lady Maevre
player, 123 posts
Sat 14 Jan 2023
at 17:48
  • msg #4

IC Thread 3

"Well this looks difficult" Lady Maevre said "I have fought these Elemental's before and they were difficult. In groups they can summon and project fireballs. Unfortunately my most effective attacks are fire based, so as you might imagine that's less useful against fire elementals"

"We will not be able to move around unnoticed. We can and will try of course, but from what
I have experienced before Prophecy and mystic portents are working against us. I am not unskilled in the arts of moving silently and unseen, and I have had no success in avoiding contact"

"I suggest we move as a group. We do not know each other well in a fight, so I would ask 'who is capable of fighting'. Obviously our friend Garaxus here is going to be at the forefront. I also will be mainly in the fight. Birahu you look like a magician to me who would like to avoid such things. Aranea?"

Birahu the Black
player, 20 posts
Sat 14 Jan 2023
at 18:04
  • msg #5

IC Thread 3


"It looks like I will have to update my repertoire, I cast mostly fire based spells. Looks like I need water based and maybe acid based too, perhaps and energy conversion skill should be added."
Lady Maevre
player, 124 posts
Sat 14 Jan 2023
at 18:24
  • msg #6

IC Thread 3

"Cold if you can" Maevre commented "Given a choice Fire Elementals hate the cold. I know in Elemental Progression theory water .. acid ... has power over fire, but I don't think it works that way in practice."

"Should we retreat, find a place to rest up so that you can prepare?"

Birahu the Black
player, 21 posts
Sat 14 Jan 2023
at 18:34
  • msg #7

IC Thread 3


"Not a lot I can do against fire elementals, no matter how much I think about it. I can use Resist Energy to help keep myself protected, Magic Missile goes through, Ray of Enfeeblement will sap their strength I guess."

He casts Mage Armor on himself to raise his AC.

Aranea
player, 12 posts
Sat 14 Jan 2023
at 20:01
  • msg #8

IC Thread 3

She finished that casting, "I have several liquids on me..." She said as two glass vials are brought out of her robe... By two independent left hands... Not the one in the sleeve. "Healing potions and antivenom are kind of a waste. I also imagine a throwing ax has little use against the elementals and biting them is also well out of the question... We need to go west to the coast and then south to the woods, or to a boat is our best bet."
wlake.gmtn
GM, 74 posts
Sun 15 Jan 2023
at 09:38
  • msg #9

IC Thread 3

The dulcet tones of the fire-breathing beasts match up with visions of the elves and the people flocking around you, moving in channels that put at odds the reason for maneuvering through the city. Riot rules mean that rolls of a 1-10 and 11-20 are processed with no modifiers. On a 1-10, the fire elementals roast through a significant portion of the inhabitants, and if it's 11-20 and explodes, you manage to use Mage Armor to protect not only yourself but the water in the atmosphere not to mention all the concomitant materials stuck on the person of Aranea.

If you roll a critical on the roll (kind of like a benny, this roll), then the creatures are pushed back, allowing for more spellcasting. If the numbers match on the second roll and the numbers are a critical, this creates a d20 situation in which the spread means:

1. Elementals move in on the priest.
2. Suffer STR and DEX hampering in the form of minus 2.

3. Elementals merge with the priest.
4. The crowd manages to put out the fire with clubs and other implements.

The buildings seem to dance with the fire, and the noise is deafening. The water sluices down from the box gutters in the form of a pleasant scene, aside from all the chaos. The buildings are seeming to lean towards the lake, where a lone mage seems to want to flood the city to get rid of the elementals.
Garaxus
player, 24 posts
Son of Zeus
Noble Savage
Tue 17 Jan 2023
at 17:10
  • msg #10

IC Thread 3

OOC: coming from the "gathering thread."

IC: Garaxus steadied himself, it was the first time he had traveled by magic and it was like being on a tempest sea. Regaining himself he stood up. "Is everyone ok?....Eleni is it...you are most welcome."Then seeing the chaos all around, the roots and the fire-breathing breasts, Garaxus drew his greatclub.

"Let's try to find the Temple of that bastard Zeus and get the arrow we where sent for." He did not want to fight the beasts if possible, you couldn't wrestle it and what good was a club against sorcery and fire? Yeah if he had to face the beasts, he would.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:12, Tue 17 Jan 2023.
Eleni
player, 7 posts
Tue 17 Jan 2023
at 19:53
  • msg #11

IC Thread 3

OOC: From the Gathering Thread

Eleni takes a moment to absorb the chaos around her, trying to see where they need to go and balancing that with the living flames causing the destruction they find themselves immersed in. Hearing Garaxus brings her focus to him. "Any idea which way we need to go? I am having difficulty seeing through the smoke and soot. My armor might give me a few moments of protection against the worst of the flames, but I think avoiding the animated flames is our best course of action. Just point me whichever way you want me to clear."
She armed up, drawing a short spear and a shield and settling into a slight crouch. It is clear she has had some formal martial training and knows how to use each implement.
Birahu the Black
player, 30 posts
Tue 17 Jan 2023
at 20:04
  • msg #12

IC Thread 3

In reply to Eleni (msg # 11):

Birahu casts two spells one after the other, Mage Armor, and Resist Energy: fire! and followed the others where they went.
Lady Maevre
player, 143 posts
Tue 17 Jan 2023
at 20:10
  • msg #13

IC Thread 3

"woo...mind the next step that one's a doozie" Maevre had recovered remarkably quickly from the sickness. Perhaps some fairie magic?

"Let me go aloft and see" Maevre suggested and rather pretty butterfly wings seemed to materialise around her. Mostly as though 'they had always been there but not noticed' than 'manifesting'. "That is risky, but perhaps not as risky as staying down here."

"It's going to be the one with lots of columns right?"


She spend a moment mentally concentrating before leaping aloft. Cautiously she used the roof of the nearest building: landing on it and looking around for the next high point. Fortunately the smoke provided excellent cover spoiled somewhat by her coughing and spluttering
wlake.gmtn
GM, 78 posts
Wed 18 Jan 2023
at 11:40
  • msg #14

IC Thread 3

The temple of Zeus shines magnificently, lit up during this night like a beacon in the meagrest light. It will take a solid hike uphill to get there, but there are massive rope-guided pulleys that allow you to glide over the slopes of controlled water, which would be a DC 15 Climb check, coupled with a DC 15 Concentration check to avoid getting distracted by the terraced view that collapses into a vast green surrounding the seven hills of the city.

The priest yells to you, as you slip away from the elementals' grasp, that he just can't tolerate being left behind, and you hear a desperate edge to his voice. With a DC 20 DEX check, and a Deflect Arrows spell (you all have a scroll in your pocket of this spell, level 5, with the effect of changing the trajectory either in a cone or up to five arrows fired in consecutive rounds) characters are able to maneuver them into the elementals, though they pass through to an unknown end. You also notice that your quivers dance with lines of fire, meaning the success you encountered while dealing with the riot will simply be channeled into another location. But now you have fire arrows, and you suspect that Apollo is behind the presence of the elementals, which are slowly pursuing you. But their profane forme is not permitted inside the naos of the temple, though you have before seen fire dance on the columns. The priest stumbles away from the elementals and starts chasing you, brandishing his cross. He speaks more Latin incantations and waves at Lady Maevre on the roof. There is a fairly even keel, assuming you either Take 10 or 20 on the Jump roll, which means you'll be encountering the elementals as they snake up the roof, or your companions won't be able to reach you for a time.

The rubble from some magically destroyed terrain blocks your passage. If you Featherstep (players with boots will move twice as fast over rubble [half move speed instead of one-fourth] and the elementals merge with a wooden bulwark in your path, setting it ablaze. You think it has symbolic worth, and can, you recall, be vanquished with a small amount of holy water, which the now emboldened priest runs toward you carrying.

You can avoid combat as the elementals are slow but the priest is catching up to you, provoking a glance left and right from a mysterious woman with black hair who taps her spear on the roofs (all of them flat in the immediate vicinity and as far as you can see) and shouts more Latin phrases. Interestingly enough, you suspect they cast glib tongues seeing as they have serpentine forked tongues to match the shocking grasp that they now pull over (lucky you discovered the source) from a ball of lightning now tracing the lip of the building two jumps away from Lady Maevre.
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